St. Paul (Odessa)

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St. Paul (2012)

St. Paul is a Protestant church in Odessa , Ukraine . It belongs to the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine . The building, which was destroyed by arson in 1976, has been rebuilt as the Church and German Center St. Paul since 2005 and inaugurated in 2010. The costs of 7.1 million euros were largely borne by the Bavarian regional church. It was one of the largest Protestant churches in the Russian Empire until 1918.

history

Around 1890
Around 1910

The first Lutheran church services took place in Odessa around 1801, and in 1803 Johann Heinrich Pfersdorff, the first Lutheran pastor, came to the Großliebenthal colony .

The municipality was constituted in 1811 and appointed its first pastor. In 1827 the first church in neo-classical style was built at the highest point of the city and named after the apostle Paulus von Tarsus . A teachers' college, a primary school, a six-class German secondary school in St. Pauli and an old people's home were built around them. later there were also poor houses and orphanages as well as houses for pastors, teachers and the cantor.

In order to meet the space requirements of the constantly growing community, which already had 7,000 members in 1895, the church was completely rebuilt in 1896/97 under the direction of the architect Hermann K. Scheurembrandt. The imposing church building in neo-Romanesque style had a capacity of 1200 people. The bell tower was then the tallest tower in the city. The church received an organ from the Walcker company .

After Odessa was taken over by the Bolsheviks in 1922, the church's altar silver was confiscated. In the years that followed, church life almost came to a standstill due to Stalin's anti-religious policy. Pastor Karl Vogel was arrested in 1937 and died in a labor camp in 1943. 23 members of the community were shot in October 1941, including Theophil Richter , the cantor of the community and father of the pianist Svyatoslaw Richter .

In the 1950s, the church was initially used as a television studio and from 1957 the telecommunications company converted it into a gymnasium. The sanitary facilities were installed in the former sanctuary. Inadequate drainage led to progressive deterioration of the building fabric in the following years. For years there was discussion about demolishing the neglected building.

Destruction and rebuilding

St. Paul 2004

In May 1976, a fire, presumably caused by arson, destroyed the entire interior. The city council of Odessa decided to keep the ruins for the city's conservatory; makeshift security work was carried out and the building was entered on the list of monuments to be protected in 1979. This is thanks to the head of the music conservatory at the time and his lecturers. They bravely protested with their students and citizens of the city against a city council decision to demolish the church.

After regaining independence, Ukraine transferred ownership of the burned-out ruins and the neighboring former old people's home back to the community, which had been re-established in 1990, on condition that both of them be restored. The congregation ceded its rights to the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine , and initially, until 2002, the former old people's home, the only one of the old buildings in the congregation that has survived to this day, became the community center and seat of the church leadership of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ukraine expanded. Guest rooms were created in the attic, the income of which goes to the church center.

At the same time there was an intensive discussion about the restoration of the church and its future use. Reconstruction began in 2005 and is financed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria and the Martin Luther Association , the Free State of Bavaria and the Federal Republic of Germany. The main nave was rebuilt and its artistic design by the Swabian artist Tobias Kammerer . In place of the apse , which was torn down due to the risk of collapse, a modern extension was built. The plans were that the German (cultural) institutions that had been active in Odessa since the 1990s, such as the Bavarian House of Odessa (BHO) or the office of the Society for Development (gfe), should move into it. It should be the "German Center - St. Paul". The final move into these and other German facilities in Odessa is still pending.

In 2006 the Evangelical Odessa Foundation was established to support church work , a church foundation under private law with its seat in Munich.

In April 2010 the church was rededicated by Bishop Uland Spahlinger. However, the Bavarian regional bishop Johannes Friedrich , who was supposed to deliver the sermon, and the delegation from the Bavarian regional church were prevented from attending by the consequences of the volcanic eruption on Iceland. The church also received a new organ. It was built in 1964 by GF Steinmeyer & Co. and previously stood in the Kreuzkirche in Nuremberg . In 2010 the instrument was transported to Odessa to be consecrated on April 18th.

literature

Web links

Commons : St. Paul (Odessa)  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uland Spahlinger: Phoenix from the ashes. St. Paul's Church in Odessa was rededicated at Easter. In: Lutherischer Dienst 46 (2010), Heft 3, p. 12 f.
  2. ↑ Inauguration of St. Paul's Church in Odessa without Bavarian participation ( memento of the original from April 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , EPD notification of April 16, 2010, accessed on April 21, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.epv.de
  3. ↑ Information on the organ

Coordinates: 46 ° 28 '58.3 "  N , 30 ° 43' 26"  E